This is Robert Forster’s best solo album, better
even then his solo debut, Danger in the Past. That
said, while it’s not a Go-Betweens’ album,
it’s not technically a Forster solo album either.
For it is haunted by the death in 2006 from a heart
attack of Forster’s long-time collaborator in
that great Australian group, Grant McLennan. In fact,
McLennan bequeathed his partner three melodies and
scattered lyrics, ‘Demon Days’, ‘Let
Your Light In’ and ‘It Ain’t Easy’,
the first the equal of the finest songs in the deceased’s
oeuvre, the last containing the poignant, posthumous
addition, ‘I write these words to his tune
that he wrote on a full moon’. Forster
contributes his own eulogy in ‘From Ghost Town’.
Always quirky, here Forster’s sensibility is
leavened by the emotional heft of painful experience,
producing his most moving work. Classic stuff –
like everything the pair did together.